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New York - US stocks mostly fell on Tuesday, but the Nasdaq stayed in positive territory as Israel's Teva announced a $40.1bn cash-and-stock bid for generic drug maker Mylan.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 85.34 points at 17 949.59.
The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 3.11 points to 2 097.29.
But helped by Mylan's 8.9% surge, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 19.50 points at 5 014.10.
Teva's cash-and-stock bid for Mylan would quash Mylan's own offer earlier this month to acquire Perrigo for $28.9bn. Mylan shares surged 8.9% and Teva gained 2.7%, while Perrigo slipped 2.0%.
Further spicing up the pharma deals pot, after the markets closed Tuesday Perrigo's board rejected Mylan's bid as too low.
The Teva move sparked gains in other large pharma stocks: Merck added 0.4%, Novartis ADRs 1.8%, Amgen 1.5%, Bristol-Meyers Squibb 1.4%, Abbott Labs 1.1%, and AstraZeneca 1.6%.
Biotech giant Gilead soared 4.5%.
On the other hand, the strong dollar dealt a blow to fresh first-quarter results and appeared to impact a broader base of global firms.
Dow member DuPont shares lost 3.0% after it cut its full-year outlook as it raised the expected hit to earnings from currency shifts. The stronger dollar took 25 cents off first-quarter earnings per share, which came in at $1.34, close to expectations.
Iconic motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson cut its prediction for shipments this year, in part due to currency shifts, sending its shares down 9.8%.
Following suit on the blue-chip Dow, GE dropped 1.5%, McDonald's - which reports on Wednesday - fell 1.4%, and IBM lost 1.1%.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 1.92% from 1.88% on Monday, while the 30-year advanced to 2.59% from 2.55%. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
